Furthermore, the actual cost of a complete system is quite high.
This year, we took the plunge, and installed a 7.4KW system. Total system price $49,000. Fortunately, my neighbors subsidized it through a fee in their monthly utility bill to the tune of $23,200. Add in another $8,400 of state and federal tax credits, the net out of pocket (and covered by refinancing my home and extracting the capital) was $17,400.
Living in a high sunlight state like Arizona, I produce, on the average $4.50 worth of electricity a day, roughly 50KWH at $0.08 per KWH.
At this rate, it will take roughly 12 years to pay for itself. If there weren't subsidies, then it would take roughly 30 years to break even.
Yes it is getting less expensive, and we have high quality panels (SunPower 225 watt panels) and a matching inverter, but even going bargain basement, the financials don't work until fossil fuel costs triple. Our system was $6.62/watt, installed. Some of the large fields being done (grid connected) are approaching $3/watt installed, but they don't scale well to residential. They use thin film PV, and the energy density in the panels is much less ( less than 1/2 the watts per panel, so you need 2X the panels to compare ).
It will get there, but it isn't imminent, and unless the government subsidizes the installations, it will die.
Wow, not all lawyers work in firms that pay by the hour. I know one lawyer, a public defender, doing it for the love of the work (because that is clearly not a path to mega-riches) who certainly makes less per hour than I do, and certainly would deserve unemployment if they were rif'd.
Just because you know lawyers with huge hourly billable rates doesn't make them all like that.
I like telling lawyer jokes as much as anyone, but some of them are not blood sucking leaches.
Close. XP Pushed me to Mac (for work), and Vista (soon Win7) brought me back.
I get ridiculed for saying that I actually like Vista, and grief, but once you get it installed, on decent hardware, and get all the drivers sorted out, it is a relatively smooth system to use and live with on a day to day basis.
I will probably be modded into obscurity for this, but hell, I have karma to burn.
I would venture that many of the Vista Haters have never really spent any time with the OS. A poster above commented that the initial release was flawed, primarily due to crappy driver support (and I was burned on the nVidia chips in my laptop), but by the time that the first SP came out, it was solid, reliable and, dare I say it, almost a pleasure to use.
My new job demanded that I go back to XP, and it reminded me of how much I prefer Vista over XP.
The true test will be how long will it take for major corporate IT uptake in Win7. Perhaps the learning curve of watching Vista and the polish that Win7 has added will begin migration plans. I sure hope so, 'cuz I can't stand XP.
Wow, you must have a selective memory of cars from the 60's and early 70's. Those engines often needed rebuilds at or before 100K miles, and the mechanical point/condenser ignition systems needed unbelievably frequent tune ups or the performance started to go to hell in a hurry.
Cars today (including the US marques) are so much superior that it is not uncommon to go 30K miles before anything "tune-up" like is done to them, apart from periodic lubrication changes and air filter changes. Hell, the new Cadillac northstar engines can go 100K miles before you need to change the spark plugs.
Much of this improvement has come through the use of better manufacturing techniques (tighter tolerances, better materials, improved functional wear surfaces), but as important is a significantly improved level of knowledge of the systems that go into a powertrain, and much better control electronics.
I do remember my 1964 Nova wagon. Loved it, but it kept my weekends busy keeping it running (not too bad for a kid in his teens, but today, I do not want to spend my spare time working on my automobile.)
Wow. It took until late in my undergrad education before I got to subjects that were evolving fast enough that the material in text books might become "changed" in 15 years (FWIW, I hold a B. Sc. Physics and never got much into high energy physics, where most of the changes are occurring).
I keep my texts on my shelves, and I refer to them. In fact for grad level mechanics, we used Goldstein, and I got a copy of Goldstein from the 50's that my father used. It was remarkably close in content, and merely had some errors fixed and added some problems to the exercises.
Sometimes it is therapeutic to be working a nonlinear PDE on my whiteboard when some engineering drone walks into my office. They are surprised that a mere marketing person can do that level mathematics.
I will probably get moderated into karma hell for this, but I wholeheartedly agree with you. I really, REALLY wanted to like Open Office, but it can't even play catch up with MS Office.
Your point about Excel 2007 are spot on. I live on pivot tables, and the conditional formatting, and while I could do some of it with Excel 2003, the new paradigms in the 2007 version are awesome.
Lots of people here drink the Koolaid that OO is a contender, but it really falls flat.
I BOUGHT and used Vista at its launch (mainly 'cuz I hated XP and its warts), through the SP1 cycle, and I actually like it. On decent hardware (at launch, I had a Dell Latitude 620, now a slightly faster 630) with supported drivers it was fine.
I didn't mind the UAC. Once I got all the SW I use installed, I see one maybe every month. It is a very usable, stable and in my opinion a good offering from the folks in Redmond.
We develop and make measurement and test equipment, and about 2 years ago, we came to a critical juncture. We needed a 64 bit transition, as increasing segments of our customers have begun to generate data sets that crippled Windows XP 32bit, and XP64 had such poor driver support that we never contemplated that path. Our service team railed against the plan to develop for Vista x64, whining that customers won't allow it (total bullcrap), and that it was the end of the world. I calmly looked in his eyes, and said, "What would you prefer, Vista, Linux, or Mac, those are the options". Once he started breathing he said that he "guessed" that we could make Vista work.
Naturally, we are on the eve of launching the application, and we will probably be shipping on Windows 7 to avoid the stigma of Vista.
Assuming I get through the first round or two, my questions are like these:
What is your culture like?
What do you like about working for (insert company name)?
(If it is a division of a large company) How heavy is the hand of Corporate on your day to day?
What keeps you up at night?
Usually by this point I am as much looking to be sold by the company. I am a product manager and usually seek similar roles. Things like culture, openness, empowerment, etc are usually covered in earlier interviews.
I should also add that I usually spend a fair amount of time researching a company before I even interview. Research their annual reports, investor page, read the SEC filings, look for analyst comments (on public companies), understand their market space, competition, etc. So usually much of this has come across already.
Oh yeah, one more: Do you use SAP? (god, how I have that frickin' program)
In the last 8 years, Arizona has had a Republican majority in their government. If they passed more spending and benefits than they could pay for, they have no-one to blame but themselves.
I live there, and I am astounded about how shortsighted and stupid the legislature is. If they keep decimating school spending, no companies will want to relocate here, and their tax base (and draw for producing citizens, not retiree's and snowbirds) will continue to shrink.
Actually, if the programs are well written, you will never lose money in this. You make it on the way up, you make it on the way down, and regardless of how the market moves, you always get your slice.
Hardly seems fair, but the little guys have no hope.
Dear god, we need one of these UI experts. Our software is horrendous, cluttered, and crufty after 15 years of incremental development. We kicked off (2+ years ago) a rewrite to support Vista (now Win7) and 64 bit, as we were hitting some walls on data structure size.
2 years in, and the boneheads are back to hard coding the "traditional" UI, 'cuz its what our technical staff is comfortable with.
I allocated plenty of money for a usability study.
I allocated plenty of money and time for bringing in a UI consultant
What did the bone head developers do? You guessed it, they decided that they knew best and returned that "value" to the bottom line...
FWIW, we do analytical instruments, and the hardware/software are an ecosystem.
Amen brother. I am one of those dreaded "product managers", in the marketing group, and for the record, I am a techie, got the BS and Msc. Physics to prove it, and you just typed gold.
The thing that engineers fail to understand is that cool to them, even if it is free (as in beer), almost universally is a flop in the market place.
FYI the worst part of my job is the PR and Press/Analyst relations. I swear, I can draft GOLD into a statement, and by the time the corporate office is done with it, it isn't worth drying and fertilizing my garden. Just like making sausage...
H'mm, Actually, the cells use only five square meters, which is a tiny fraction of the size of most house roofs. Secondly, while they are "only" 8% efficient, this happens to be as good, if not better, than the greater percentage of solar cells available on the market.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but I can assure you that among commercially available modules, 8% is NOT as good or better than any on the market.
I do not have enough time to do a thorough report, but I can assure you that 8$ is quite low, and not generally acceptable. For a cite, here are the panels that are going on my roof next week (http://us.sunpowercorp.com/downloads/product_pdfs/residential/SunPower_225bk_res_en_lt_w_ra.pdf). Each cell in the module (crystalline silicon wafers) is 23% efficient at turning photons into electricity, and at the module level is about 20% efficient.
Think film, particularly amorphous silicon, is not really suitable for residential installations. Your house just doesn't have enough square feet of space to mount the panels/rolls to.
Slashdot Mirror
only one windows server die? Seems like too small of an aspiration to me...
'cuz "Don Henley must Die"!
But what would you write on Durian?
You too? I thought I was the last one who did...
Best thing I have read in a while. Great reading...
Sadly, a nice kitchen is worth more than PV or all the green you can install on a house.
Furthermore, the actual cost of a complete system is quite high.
This year, we took the plunge, and installed a 7.4KW system. Total system price $49,000. Fortunately, my neighbors subsidized it through a fee in their monthly utility bill to the tune of $23,200. Add in another $8,400 of state and federal tax credits, the net out of pocket (and covered by refinancing my home and extracting the capital) was $17,400.
Living in a high sunlight state like Arizona, I produce, on the average $4.50 worth of electricity a day, roughly 50KWH at $0.08 per KWH.
At this rate, it will take roughly 12 years to pay for itself. If there weren't subsidies, then it would take roughly 30 years to break even.
Yes it is getting less expensive, and we have high quality panels (SunPower 225 watt panels) and a matching inverter, but even going bargain basement, the financials don't work until fossil fuel costs triple. Our system was $6.62/watt, installed. Some of the large fields being done (grid connected) are approaching $3/watt installed, but they don't scale well to residential. They use thin film PV, and the energy density in the panels is much less ( less than 1/2 the watts per panel, so you need 2X the panels to compare ).
It will get there, but it isn't imminent, and unless the government subsidizes the installations, it will die.
Wow, not all lawyers work in firms that pay by the hour. I know one lawyer, a public defender, doing it for the love of the work (because that is clearly not a path to mega-riches) who certainly makes less per hour than I do, and certainly would deserve unemployment if they were rif'd.
Just because you know lawyers with huge hourly billable rates doesn't make them all like that.
I like telling lawyer jokes as much as anyone, but some of them are not blood sucking leaches.
Close. XP Pushed me to Mac (for work), and Vista (soon Win7) brought me back.
I get ridiculed for saying that I actually like Vista, and grief, but once you get it installed, on decent hardware, and get all the drivers sorted out, it is a relatively smooth system to use and live with on a day to day basis.
I will probably be modded into obscurity for this, but hell, I have karma to burn.
I would venture that many of the Vista Haters have never really spent any time with the OS. A poster above commented that the initial release was flawed, primarily due to crappy driver support (and I was burned on the nVidia chips in my laptop), but by the time that the first SP came out, it was solid, reliable and, dare I say it, almost a pleasure to use.
My new job demanded that I go back to XP, and it reminded me of how much I prefer Vista over XP.
The true test will be how long will it take for major corporate IT uptake in Win7. Perhaps the learning curve of watching Vista and the polish that Win7 has added will begin migration plans. I sure hope so, 'cuz I can't stand XP.
Wow, you must have a selective memory of cars from the 60's and early 70's. Those engines often needed rebuilds at or before 100K miles, and the mechanical point/condenser ignition systems needed unbelievably frequent tune ups or the performance started to go to hell in a hurry.
Cars today (including the US marques) are so much superior that it is not uncommon to go 30K miles before anything "tune-up" like is done to them, apart from periodic lubrication changes and air filter changes. Hell, the new Cadillac northstar engines can go 100K miles before you need to change the spark plugs.
Much of this improvement has come through the use of better manufacturing techniques (tighter tolerances, better materials, improved functional wear surfaces), but as important is a significantly improved level of knowledge of the systems that go into a powertrain, and much better control electronics.
I do remember my 1964 Nova wagon. Loved it, but it kept my weekends busy keeping it running (not too bad for a kid in his teens, but today, I do not want to spend my spare time working on my automobile.)
Wow. It took until late in my undergrad education before I got to subjects that were evolving fast enough that the material in text books might become "changed" in 15 years (FWIW, I hold a B. Sc. Physics and never got much into high energy physics, where most of the changes are occurring).
I keep my texts on my shelves, and I refer to them. In fact for grad level mechanics, we used Goldstein, and I got a copy of Goldstein from the 50's that my father used. It was remarkably close in content, and merely had some errors fixed and added some problems to the exercises.
Sometimes it is therapeutic to be working a nonlinear PDE on my whiteboard when some engineering drone walks into my office. They are surprised that a mere marketing person can do that level mathematics.
Actually, we get a 3" or so layer every few years in Tucson, Arizona, and it gets ugly. It can and does snow in the desert.
FWIW, I have solar panels on my roof, and love em, but I think this is a pipe dream
I will probably get moderated into karma hell for this, but I wholeheartedly agree with you. I really, REALLY wanted to like Open Office, but it can't even play catch up with MS Office.
Your point about Excel 2007 are spot on. I live on pivot tables, and the conditional formatting, and while I could do some of it with Excel 2003, the new paradigms in the 2007 version are awesome.
Lots of people here drink the Koolaid that OO is a contender, but it really falls flat.
(Disclaimer - I am a Mac fanboi)
I BOUGHT and used Vista at its launch (mainly 'cuz I hated XP and its warts), through the SP1 cycle, and I actually like it. On decent hardware (at launch, I had a Dell Latitude 620, now a slightly faster 630) with supported drivers it was fine.
I didn't mind the UAC. Once I got all the SW I use installed, I see one maybe every month. It is a very usable, stable and in my opinion a good offering from the folks in Redmond.
We develop and make measurement and test equipment, and about 2 years ago, we came to a critical juncture. We needed a 64 bit transition, as increasing segments of our customers have begun to generate data sets that crippled Windows XP 32bit, and XP64 had such poor driver support that we never contemplated that path. Our service team railed against the plan to develop for Vista x64, whining that customers won't allow it (total bullcrap), and that it was the end of the world. I calmly looked in his eyes, and said, "What would you prefer, Vista, Linux, or Mac, those are the options". Once he started breathing he said that he "guessed" that we could make Vista work.
Naturally, we are on the eve of launching the application, and we will probably be shipping on Windows 7 to avoid the stigma of Vista.
Geoff
Assuming I get through the first round or two, my questions are like these:
What is your culture like?
What do you like about working for (insert company name)?
(If it is a division of a large company) How heavy is the hand of Corporate on your day to day?
What keeps you up at night?
Usually by this point I am as much looking to be sold by the company. I am a product manager and usually seek similar roles. Things like culture, openness, empowerment, etc are usually covered in earlier interviews.
I should also add that I usually spend a fair amount of time researching a company before I even interview. Research their annual reports, investor page, read the SEC filings, look for analyst comments (on public companies), understand their market space, competition, etc. So usually much of this has come across already.
Oh yeah, one more: Do you use SAP? (god, how I have that frickin' program)
Geoff
In the last 8 years, Arizona has had a Republican majority in their government. If they passed more spending and benefits than they could pay for, they have no-one to blame but themselves.
I live there, and I am astounded about how shortsighted and stupid the legislature is. If they keep decimating school spending, no companies will want to relocate here, and their tax base (and draw for producing citizens, not retiree's and snowbirds) will continue to shrink.
Actually, if the programs are well written, you will never lose money in this. You make it on the way up, you make it on the way down, and regardless of how the market moves, you always get your slice.
Hardly seems fair, but the little guys have no hope.
F-Yeah, I want that Minority report shit too.
Or in Germany, where my passport was stolen from one of those in-room safes (physically destroyed to open, not hacked into).
Wow, you nailed it...
Dear god, we need one of these UI experts. Our software is horrendous, cluttered, and crufty after 15 years of incremental development. We kicked off (2+ years ago) a rewrite to support Vista (now Win7) and 64 bit, as we were hitting some walls on data structure size.
2 years in, and the boneheads are back to hard coding the "traditional" UI, 'cuz its what our technical staff is comfortable with.
I allocated plenty of money for a usability study.
I allocated plenty of money and time for bringing in a UI consultant
What did the bone head developers do? You guessed it, they decided that they knew best and returned that "value" to the bottom line...
FWIW, we do analytical instruments, and the hardware/software are an ecosystem.
Amen brother. I am one of those dreaded "product managers", in the marketing group, and for the record, I am a techie, got the BS and Msc. Physics to prove it, and you just typed gold.
The thing that engineers fail to understand is that cool to them, even if it is free (as in beer), almost universally is a flop in the market place.
FYI the worst part of my job is the PR and Press/Analyst relations. I swear, I can draft GOLD into a statement, and by the time the corporate office is done with it, it isn't worth drying and fertilizing my garden. Just like making sausage...
A European Petabyte, or an African Petabyte...
H'mm, Actually, the cells use only five square meters, which is a tiny fraction of the size of most house roofs. Secondly, while they are "only" 8% efficient, this happens to be as good, if not better, than the greater percentage of solar cells available on the market.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but I can assure you that among commercially available modules, 8% is NOT as good or better than any on the market.
I do not have enough time to do a thorough report, but I can assure you that 8$ is quite low, and not generally acceptable. For a cite, here are the panels that are going on my roof next week (http://us.sunpowercorp.com/downloads/product_pdfs/residential/SunPower_225bk_res_en_lt_w_ra.pdf). Each cell in the module (crystalline silicon wafers) is 23% efficient at turning photons into electricity, and at the module level is about 20% efficient.
Think film, particularly amorphous silicon, is not really suitable for residential installations. Your house just doesn't have enough square feet of space to mount the panels/rolls to.